Cairo: Saudi anti-drug police have thwarted an attempt to smuggle 236kg of cocaine that was hidden in a banana shipment, the kingdom's Interior Ministry has said.
The haul was seized by the General Directorate of Narcotics Control in coordination with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (Zatca) at the King Abdullah Port in the Rabigh governorate, part of the Mecca region, the ministry added.
Authorities said foiling the attempt was part of efforts to protect the kingdom and its youth from drug smuggling and trafficking rings.
There was no word about potential arrests in connection to the case, or the original source of the seized haul.
In recent months, Saudi Arabia has stepped up its crackdown on narcotics smugglers and traffickers in what is dubbed the “war on drugs”, reporting a series of aborted attempts.
In late August, Saudi authorities said they had thwarted an attempt to smuggle 349,710 drug Captagon pills hidden in tile-polishing equipment at a border crossing.
Zatca said the bid had been uncovered inside a consignment arriving to the kingdom at the Jadidat Arar border crossing with Iraq. Four would-be recipients were arrested.
In July, Saudi anti-drug police rounded up 14 people involved in narcotics peddling and smuggling in several parts of the country.
Also in July, Zatca reported that customs officers at the Jeddah port had foiled an attempt to smuggle 3,633,978 captagon pills hidden in a shipment.
In May, anti-drug police had seized 4.7 million tablets of amphetamine hidden in a consignment of concrete blocks and arrested two foreigners in connection to the haul.
That month, customs authorities also said they had aborted an attempt to smuggle cocaine into the kingdom in a potato shipment arriving at the Jeddah port.
Drug smuggling and trafficking are offences punishable by up to death in Saudi Arabia.
